Okay, all of those of you who thought that journeyman catcher Kazunari Sanematsu would be starting for the Yomiuri Giants this season raise your hands. Sorry, peyote users don't count. Nobody? Me neither, but taht is a reflection of how injury riddled the team is right now and they suffered their fifth straight loss against the Chiba Lotte Marines Saturday when Matt Watson was assigned to pinch hit for backup second baseman Masato Watanabe in the bottiom of the ninth and crashed a shot off the wall that became a game winning RBI double in a 3-2 Marines victory. 

The lack of three big run producers for Yomiuri, Yoshinbou Takahashi, Hiroki Kokubo and catcher Shinnosuke Abe, helped block starter Kimiyasu  Kudoh from being awarded his fourth victory, as he went seven innings of one run ball on five hits. This is a 43 year old guy and he has a 2.70 ERA! 

Naoyuki Shimizu started for Lotte and went all the way, notching his sixth win thanks to the ability to lmit damage and perseverance. His final line was nine innings, two runs, one earned, on six hits and struckout seven while walking one. His ERA is now 2.14

Giants first baseman Takayuki Saito singled to left to commence the second and was liquidated on a forceout at second off the bat of rightfielder Yoshiyuki Kamei. But in the attempt to double Kamei up, shortstop Tsuyoshi Nishioka threw it away and Kamei ended up at second. Centerfielder Tatsuya Ozeki singled to right. Second baseman Makoto Kosaka grounded to second and Kamei crossed with a 1-0 lead. 

Lotte, though, posted a run of their own in the home turn when catcher Tomoya Satozaki singled to center and went to second on a one out groundout. First baseman Takeshi Aono singled to center and Satozaki scored to tie it up at 1-1.  

Lotte had two on and two out in the fourth and didn't get the job done there. Yomiuri then had a man on third in the fifth and bolted him to the bag. 

In the fifth, Nishioka doubled into the leftfield corner. Second baseman Koichi Hori smashed a shot headed into right, but Kosaka flagged it down with a dive and threw Hori out at first and Nishioka went to third. But Kudoh struck third baseman Toshiaki Imae out and leftfielder Benny Agabayani lined out to right to foil that revolt. 

The Giants then went ahead in the sixth, as shortstop Tomohiro Nioka isngled to left and DH Seung-yeop Lee walked. The runners moved up on a sacrifce. Kamei hit a breaking ball on the screws, but Agbayani ran it down and it went as a sacrifice fly for a 2-1 advantage. 

However, Lotte knotted it back up in the eighth thanks to a bit of opportunism. Imae looped a one out 1-2 fastball on the inner half from reliever Yuya Kubo near the line in left for a double. Agbayani singled to center. Imae was going to stop at third, but when he saw Ozeki fumble the ball, he changed gears and kept right on going to the plate and it was 2-2. Agbayani went to second on a sac bunt. Kazuya Fukuura pinch hit for rightfielder Saburo Omura and was intentionally walked to get at DH Toshiya Tsuji, who popped up and halted the uprising. 

Shimizu worked a perfect ninth and so it went into the last of the inning. With two gone, Nishioka singled to center. Watson was sent up to pinch hit for Watanabe. Giants skipper Tatsunori Hara reacted with lefthanded reliever Masanori Hayashi. On the second pitch of the sequence, Nishioka took off. Hayashi gave Watson a fastball that he could handle and he carromed it off the rightfield wall. Kamei was a little slow getting to the ball, perhaps believing tht he had no chance to get somebody with Nishioka's electric speed, so the latter was able to cross on the double without a play. 

When Kamei returned to the dugout, he was really aired out by defense and baserunning coach Yoshihiro Nishioka to the point that two other players felt it necessary to step between the two men. Nishioka felt that Kamei didn't hustle on the play and needs to remember that runners sometimes stumble. Nishioka did blame himself for not positioning Kamei deeper, but Kamei was really bummed out when he got on the team bus. Nishioka has a point, I have to say. I don't think Kamei was dogging it. He just had too much respect for Tsuyoshi Nishioka. 

Lotte has won five straight against Yomiuri and is 10-1 against them over the last two seasons. The Giants have also been defeated their last five times out. 

Watson is still getting adjusted to Japan and Friday, his teammates took him out for some okonomiyaki (*drool). 

For Yomiuri, Lee was 0-3 with a walk and is at .306. 

For Lotte, Agbayani was 1-4 and is at .290. Matt Franco was 0-1 in a pinch hit appearance and is at .298. Watson was 1-1 and is at .316. 

The Softbank Hawks tied it up in the seventh, but the Yakult Swallows got a three run homer in the top of the eighth and that would prove to be the signal blow of the match in a 6-2 triumph by the Tokyo contingent that put them a season high three games over .500. The Ramirez clout had some historical significance, too. More about that later.

Masanori Ishikawa started for Yakult and actually got through six innings under a reasonable pitch count, 87, during which he allowed a run on six hits, but he didn't figure in the decision. 

Also not getting credit was Keisaburo Tanoue, who was in for 5.1 innings of two run ball on six hits, a decent effort from a journeyman hurler. 

Ramirez doubled to left in the second and, two outs later, DH Atsuya Furuta singled to left and Ramirez rumbled to the plate for a 1-0 lead. 

Softbank had a man on third with one out in the third and left him there on a lineout and a groundout. 

Yakult ahd two on and two out in the fifth and the big hit didn't come. 

Softbank leveled it in the bottom of the inning on a one out double to left by second baseman Satoru Morimoto and, one out later, a one out single to center by centerfielder Naoyuki Omura that made it 1-1. 

The Swallows, though, would nose back ahead in the sixth when third baseman Akinori Iwamura singled to center with one out and Ramirez doubled to left. Second baseman Greg LaRocca grounded to second and Iwamura was invited home for a 2-1 edge. Rightfielder Ryuji Miyade struckout to strand Ramirez. 

The Hawks pulled back alongside Yakult in the seventh, as Morimoto singled to center with one out and, one out later, Omura tripled to right to put it at two all. Shortstop Munenori Kawasaki, who is batting .311, was next, but he struckout. 

Lefthander Koji Mise opened the eighth on the hill for Softbank and centerfielder Norichika Aoki singled to left. First baseman Adam Riggs doubled to right. Iwamura singled to right and Aoki crossed. Shintaro Yoshitake replaced Mise. Ramirez pummled one over the leftfield wall and it was 6-2. 

Softbank attempted to retaliate in the bottom segment when DH Yoshinori Tanoue reached on an infield hit against reliever Masato Hanada. Out went Hanada and in came Yuhei Takai and, one out later, after Kosuke Matsui was substituted for Takai, first baseman Julio Zuleta singled to right. Following another out, third baseman Nobuhiro Matsuda walked to juice the bags. But 
Morimoto grounded back to Matsui and Masao Kida kept it scorelesss in the ninth to wrap it up . 

Ramirez' homer was his tenth, making Yakult the first Central League team ever to have three foreign players with ten homers or more in the same season. 

Hanada was bestowed with his first win in three years. 

For Softbank, Zuleta was 1-4 and is at .270. 

For Yakult, Riggs was 1-4 and is at .304. Ramirez was 3-4 and is at .313. LaRocca was . 0-4 and is at .305. 

Rakuten Outfielder Akihisa Makita was taken off the roster as a precautionary measure after he was beaned the other day by Hiroshima hurler Mike Romano. Makita will be examined again by doctors Sunday. Manager Katsuya Nomura also asserted that somebody from the Carp should apologize for the beaning incident. I don't think that's going to happen, though. It would be one thing if Makita was hurt, but doctors had already cleared him to play again before Nomura decided to give him a little vacation.